Name:  Canna Cannova varieties 

Type of Plant: Cannas are large-leaf, flowering plants that add a tropical look to gardens and containers. They are hardy in a warm Zone 7 and above, but popular as annuals in colder areas.

Why I Love This Plant:  The kind people at Ball Ingenuity sent me these Canna plants to try and I am so pleased that they did. First of all, they grew quickly. From a small plant in a 4” pot, these Cannas became large plants that strutted their stuff all summer. They flowered all summer, and the foliage was big and bold.

Cannas are tropical plants that love heat and sunshine, but I am happy to say that these Cannova varieties did beautifully even though our summer weather in 2023 was unrelentingly cloudy and damp. So this is a “thriller plant” that you know will perform well even if the weather is less than ideal.

In my containers the Canna Cannova Bronze Peach and the Canna Cannova Rose Dark Bud grew to about 3 feet tall. In the ground they might get a bit taller.

A Word to the Wise: Cannas can be over-wintered by putting the rhizomes in a cool but above-freezing location for the winter.

One of the Canna Cannova plants will pretty much fill a container, but adding a “spiller” to contrast with the big Canna leaves works well. 

You have to love these huge, colorful flowers. This one is Canna Cannava Bronze Peach. The “bronze” refers to the foliage, which would be a great contrast with plants that have green or silver leaves.

Here is how the Bronze Peach plant looked with other containers on my deck this summer. Note: if you can place a Canna where the evening sun will hit the foliage, those big leaves light up.

I planted the Rose Dark Bud Canna Cannova in a wide pot with Persian Shield and a Silver Cascade Artemisia.

Okay…I was shooting photos of the hummingbird at the Cuphea. But my point here is that the Bronze Peach Canna Cannova echos other orange, red or pink flowers beautifully. And with its large flowers and leaves it’s the perfect contrast to flowers like Cuphea that have smaller blooms and finer textures.